LITTLE ROCK (AP) - School superintendents in Camden and El Dorado are lobbying Gov. Mike Huckabee and legislators to redraw school district boundaries statewide to create school districts that are more racially balanced.

The leaders in the two majority-black school districts fear consolidating small high schools will lead to greater racial inequity by merging majority-white districts that surround them.

"Quite simply, all proposals now being considered may actually operate to undermine the achievement of true student equity," El Dorado Superintendent Bob Watson wrote in a letter to Huckabee.

Watson and Camden Superintendent Jerry Guess are searching for legislators to sponsor a bill requiring new districts formed through consolidation to mirror the racial diversity of the surrounding county within 10 percent.

Huckabee is expected to call a Dec. 8 special session to take up education reforms and how to fund them. Arkansas is under a Jan. 1 state Supreme Court deadline to overhaul a public school system that the court has declared unconstitutional.

Huckabee has advocated consolidating high schools with fewer than 375 students to increase high school course offerings, streamline bureaucracy and cut costs.

The regular session ended in April without major education reforms after talks broke down largely because of rural legislators' opposition to school consolidation.

El Dorado, with 4,416 students, is the largest school district in Union County. Smaller school districts in the county - each with fewer than about 700 students - include Huttig, Junction City, Mount Holly, Norphlet, Parkers Chapel, Smackover, Strong and Union.

"All proposals now presented require the El Dorado School District to essentially remain as it is, while the surrounding districts undergo changes to foster improvements in their districts. ... Inevitably the El Dorado School District will be left with a high number of disadvantaged students," Watson wrote in his letter to Huckabee.

Watson said he and Guess have been invited to address the Joint Legislative Committee on Education about their plan on Tuesday. So far, the two have been unable to find a sponsor for their proposal, he said.

John Gross, superintendent of Parkers Chapel, said his district will fight the plan.

"Parkers Chapel is a close-knit community with a tradition of excellence. I don't see any thought here to white flight. We have a lot of old families in Parkers Chapel and people who move in here usually move from outside of El Dorado," he said.

The school district plans a community meeting on Thursday to discuss the plan. Gross said Sen. Gene Jeffress, D-Crossett, and Rep. Robert Neal Jeffrey, D-Camden, have agreed to attend the forum.

Gross said Jeffress has already met with school employees to address their concerns. He said Jeffress encouraged the districts' teachers to "share their concerns" with business leaders in El Dorado.

Jeffress did not return several messages left by The Associated Press Thursday.

Guess said that if issue of racial balance is not addressed in the legislative session, the districts could sue the state under federal civil rights laws.

Arkansas' Supreme Court based its ruling against the state on a lawsuit brought by the tiny Lake View school district in southeast Arkansas. The district argued that, for too long, its students have had to make do with less while students in wealthier areas of the state benefited from stronger economies.

"Lake View has shown the light quite brightly on the fact that public education is the state's responsibility and, if we are right that resegregation will occur and it is not paid attention to, the state does have a responsibility to address that," Guess said.